140 POTATO CULTUKE. 



were beginning to sprout, we sorted them up and took them 

 to town. They were early potatoes, and sprouts will start 

 in the cellar by this time (Apr. 7). Some of them were an 

 inch long. When we dug the potatoes they were not sorted 

 at all, but picked up, little and big together, as we were to 

 have 50 cents a bushel for the small ones. The season is 

 forward, and we are full of business outdoors, and I dreaded 

 this potato job; and, but for the Hoover sorter and sprouter, 

 I should have dreaded it much more. For three of us to sit 

 down and sprout and sort those 90 bushels by hand would be 

 a job that I shouldn't like to take for a day's work. I have 

 done such work, but I always dread it and avoid it when I 

 can. Now I am ready to tell you how easy the machine 

 made it for us. We put it in position, with the pile of pota- 

 toes at the hopper end, and room for working and piling 

 boxes at the other end. Then my man Fred took up a big 

 wooden shovel full (nearly a. peck) and placed it on the hop- 

 per. r : I turned the crank with my right hand, and took hold 

 of the shovel with my left, and fed slowly. My man filled 

 another shovel and placed it, and took from me the empty 

 one, and so on. At the other end my son Robert sat on a 

 box, with a bushel box in front of him, and under the end of 

 the sorter. His work was to watch for poor, rough, or cut 

 large potatoes, as the box filled up. The sorter took out the 

 small lones, and Robert moved the boxes back as they were 

 filled, and placed others. In this way we were all busy. It 

 was not hard for any one, and we kept a steady gait right 

 along. A perfect job was done at the rate of 40 bushels an 

 hour. Now, this is an exact fact by the watch. The pota- 

 toes were as well sprouted as one need ask for, and sorted 

 too, with the overlooking by Robert. With four horses and 

 our work outside waiting ,Jthat sorter was worth one-third its 

 cost to us easily this morning. 



We have, of course, some 20 bushels of eating-potatoes to 

 sprout from this time on, as we always keep early ones to 

 eat, they being of better quality. If the sprouts are left to 



